The company had a board meeting in the days leading up to its Q4 earnings release on February 27.

Hannah didn't see any change in Roth's demeanor during that meeting.

"Steve was as supportive and as constructive in that board meeting than he has ever been," said Hannah. "I can tell you that there was not one indication coming out of that meeting that he was going to do anything with his position."

"There was not one discussion following our board meeting that there had been anything that changed with Steve," said Hannah, who noted that he's not speaking for Roth. "He did what he felt he needed to do."

Hannah said that Roth likely "concluded that it just wasn't worth the effort."

Vornado's CEO stepped down later that week, then Roth gave the go-ahead to try to dump the shares that weekend.

"His investment in JCP is less than 1 percent of a $25 billion enterprise value. So my guess is with him taking over the CEO responsibility, he didn't want the distraction," said Hannah, who noted that it took up "a third of the time" on Roth's most recent earnings call.

Roth was seen as a big ally of activist investor Bill Ackman at the retailer. They were both elected to the board at the same time.

Vornado has 13.4 million shares left. or a 6.11 percent stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.